B.     Docketing

 

In an attorney’s life, not everything has to go on the calendar right away.  With a U.S. trademark, for example, you must file both a Section 8 statement of continued use and a renewal at six and ten years respectively.  Those dates are important to the clients, but depending on your activity, keeping them in your regular calendar queue can be somewhat bloating.  So, my answer to this problem is to create what I deem a “master” docket where I input all filing and renewal dates.  This I keep in Natara’s fabulous product, Bonsai.

 

 I use Bonsai to keep a master task list of upcoming tasks, then transfer them to my daily to do list..

 

 

Bonsai is essentially a multi-functional outlining program with a desktop component.  One of the neat features of Bonsai is that you can create a linked to do from an outline.  So, you begin to see my method: I review my master list regularly and export any important upcoming dates to either my calendar or my to do list (or both). 

 

Bonsai can also be used to create speaking outlines and other type of idea management which can be handy for attorneys.  The only negative I can find about Bonsai is that its$34.95 price tag is a bit on the high end of the spectrum for Palm software, although that price does include the desktop component and conduit.  It can be explored at www.natara.com.

 

Other products that I have either used or which you might consider for performing similar functions are as follows:  Ultrasoft BrainForest, LifeBalance, Shadowplan, and Thoughtmanager.  All of these products would serve the same or similar functions as Bonsai, although LifeBalance is really more of a to do replacement than an outliner.  At any rate, these products are superb and deserve adequate consideration. 

 

Another product I use frequently, though not for docketing purposes, is HandyShopper.  The only reason I did not use HandyShopper for my docketing is that it has no true desktop conduit.  But, considering that it is freeware, it should be in every lawyer’s PDA.  I use HandyShopper for it’s obvious purpose, but there is a tremendous support group on Yahoo for this product and you can find in the archives various “templates” for HandyShopper which, for example, track telephone calls and inventories, something which might come in useful for attorneys of various stripes.

 

 

As for more integrated approaches to docketing, it is essential to mention that there are numerous Windows-based products available for lawyers that meet the requirements docketing and have a PDA component available.  Almost all legal packages of this nature now have either PocketPC or PalmOS compatible components.  Examples of these are Abacus, Amicus Attorney, PCLaw,  Perfect Practice by ADC Legal Systems, Inc, Juris, Time & Chaos and TimeMatters.   There is a lot to be said for the integrated approach.  More often than not, however, these desktop-based systems require intensive data input to function properly and integration with the palm component is sometimes limited.  I personally apply the Occam’s Razor to my legal calendaring and docketing and try to use products that are very intuitive and can be accessed and used quickly.  Simple is often times better.

 

II.    Timekeeping & Tasks

 

Another critical component in most lawyers day to day affair is keeping track of time and tasks.  For most lawyer, “billable hours” is the lifeblood of our practice.  Capturing and billing our time is the essence of what we do.  We do that through the performance of tasks.  Thus, these two elements work hand in hand to feed the machine I call a law practice.  Naturally, having an good set of tools with which to accomplish tasks and capture the time required to complete them is a high priority.

 

A.        Timekeeping

 

As I mentioned earlier, I use TR4TS (“Time Reporter for Timeslips”) for tracking my time and billing it back to my clients.  My only reason for choosing this PDA component is because I have used Timeslips for Windows on my desktop since I began practicing law some twelve years ago and this is the only PDA conduit that supports it.  And it does, in fact, support it very well.  All of my client and matter information stored in Timeslips for Windows desktop is synchronized with the PDA component.  When I’m away from my desk, I can capture the time or expenses I spend on a client’s matter while I’m out of the office and it is then synchronized back into my desktop component at work.  This allows me to capture time I might otherwise forget about.

 

 TR4TS’s main entry screen, shown, is very simple.  It provides drop down menus for the task, client and reference.  Once you’ve synced your system to Timeslips, these are populated with the fields from your desktop component.   Once you begin a task, you can either start a timer or manually enter the duration.  Or, alternatively, you can drag your stylus across the time line.  There is a description field for free form text entry, which ultimately ends up on the description field of your invoice when it prints.

 

Many other systems are also available for capturing, tracking and billing time.  Some of these programs started out as desktop software and added PDA components later in their version history.  Some of these include AbacusLaw, Amicus Attorney, PC Law, SeaBill; Tabs3, Time & Chaos (w/Chaos Sync for Palm).  Other packages were intended for use on the PDA from the ground up.  Examples of some of these include  L3 TimeBill; TimeBill Pro; TimeBill for Palm Hi-Res 4.0.2; Time Trakker; Time Track; HourzPro; ProjecTrak; GMS Time Log; SDS Time; AllTime.  All of the aforementioned products have either a desktop component or a method of importing the time tracked into a memo and then importing it into a desktop spreadsheet.

 

On the free side of things, there are a few interesting products that will serve the purpose for the more frugal barristers.  TimeCompanion, for example, offers a more simplistic approach to tracking time spent on various projects (www.timecompanion.com).  Older versions 1.5 and 1.6 are still widely available on the web at sites like www.freewareplam.com, and you should be aware that the new freeware version of TimeCompanion available at the home page only allows three concurrent projects.  In order to do more, you’ll have to purchase one of the commercial versions, which range in price from $40 to $70.  Other potentially useful freeware programs are Timesheet by Sankey and TimeWhiz.

 

For attorneys, this decision is critical and should be given careful consideration.  Using a freeware package designed for simplistic purposes is not for everyone and, in fact, is probably NOT the solution for most attorneys.  Make a careful list of the features you need and do a spreadsheet comparison of products before you purchase.

 

For most attorneys, the critical feature missing in many time and billing software packages is adequate treatment of payments to and from trust accounts.  An attorney is ethically bound to keep accurate records of monies held in trust for clients, yet software designed by non-lawyers sometimes misses this important component.  Time & Chaos, for example, offers a “legal billing” component that sells for $34.95 (in addition to the $45 price tag of its flagship calendaring system).  Yet, despite the hefty price of admission, T&C’s Legal Billing does not provide any manner of tracking trust accounts!

 

The subject of T&C brings up another caveat emptor: be aware of  the “add-on” syndrome you’ll find in this category of software.  T&C is a perfect example.  By the time you purchase the basis calendar and contact program ($45.00), the legal billing component ($34.95) and ChaosSync for Palm ($24.95), which you’ll need to synchronize all this information with your PDA, you’ve spent $104.90!  And while I consider that expensive, it’s a pittance compared to what you’ll spend for TimeSlips, PCLaw, and Seabill by the time you purchase the additional software required to synchronize your data with your PDA, just to offer a few examples.

 

B.        Task Management

 

My method of task management was reviewed briefly in the discussion of Bonsai above.  I keep a master list in Bonsai which is then transferred to the date book at the appropriate juncture.  Then, in the task section Datebk5, I review my tasks at the end of every day and either mark them completed or use the advance feature (simply hold down on the task item and a pop-up window appears allowing you to change the date of the task) to move them to a future day, usually the next day, but sometimes “Next Monday” or “One week later.”  This method of monitoring simple everyday tasks works quite well for me.  I always have my master to do list in Bonsai and my working to do list in Datebk5.

 

 ShadowPlan from Codejedi.com is another very good alternative to Bonsai and performs basically the same function.  My wife was recently looking for a Palm software package that would allow her to keep her goals in a master list and then send them directly to the calendar at a specific time and date so that she could have a list of goals and then schedule them for completion at a specific time i.e., not send them to the to do list, but to the calendar.  Believe it or not, there are not that many programs out there that meet these requirements.  ShadowPlan, however, does provide this nifty feature.  In fact, this does set it apart from Bonsai in that regard, although I did send a request to Bonsai to include this feature in a future update. 

 

The thing that makes me keep coming back to Bonsai for my own personal use, however, is the superior desktop compliment to the program.  Shadowplan’s desktop component, while very functional, is utilitarian.  There is no support for fonts or colors.  While this may seem somewhat vain or merely aesthetic at best, it is not.  When I’m using a program to monitor trademark registrations, for example, it is important that I have a desktop component that allows me to select a comfortable viewing experience.  Being able to increase or decrease the size of the font is critical.  Often, when selecting a program to use, the choice comes down to very simple requirements.  You might very well find that what is not as good for me, Shadowplan, meets your needs completely.  For me, so far at least, it’s Bonsai.

 

 

By the way, in my search for my wife’s software, I did encounter some shareware packages that performed the function of sending a goal to the date book: Goal Tender and Task Master.  Unfortunately, they are little more than list generators that send a goal to the date book.  If you needs are rudimentary, however, check them out.

 

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